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URMC Developing Map of Microscopic Lung Structures

URMC

A new project at the University of Rochester Medical Center will have lung researchers breathing easier.

URMC has launched a 5-year effort to develop the Human Lung Molecular Atlas Program, or LungMAP.

Doctor Gloria Pryhuber, professor of Pediatrics and Environmental Medicine, explains the project will give researchers a better understanding of the development and functioning of the lungs on a microscopic level.

"Part of what our job is for the LungMAP here at Rochester, is to take a lung and disassociate it so that we get individual cells. And now we can look at the individual cells for the genes that they express, for the proteins that they express. We've never been able to do that before," said Pryhuber.

The online LungMAP will provide information to lead to the treatments for respiratory illnesses, like lung cancer or emphysema.

The National Institutes of Health awarded 6.1 million dollars for the project—part of more than 20 million dollars in grant funding for similar lung mapping projects around the country.